Developer of Australia’s first solar-battery hybrid lands finance and presses go on another bigger project

Spanish energy giant Naturgy has reached a financial investment decision on its second solar-battery hybrid project in Australia, having already delivered the country’s first a little over a year ago.

Naturgy says the $500 million Fraser Coast project, combing a 290 megawatt (MW) solar farm and a 180 MW, two hour battery, about 50km south-west of Maryborough, is now being built and will be finished in 2028. 

The project has landed a 10 year power purchase agreement with an unidentified buyer, although Telstra has figured prominently in the some of the company’s other key projects in Australia.

Naturgy delivered Australia’s first solar-battery hybrid in Cunderdin, in Western Australia, where it combined a 128 MW solar farm last year with a 55 MW, 220 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery.

Solar-battery hybrids are proving popular because they share the same connection, allowing solar to be stored for dispatch in more lucrative high demand periods, and are now proving competitive and easier to build and connect than larger wind projects.

This week Renew Economy reported that Deutsche Bank has provided finance to Danish renewables developer European Energy to add a battery to the operational 58 MW Mokoan solar farm in Victoria, while Perth-based Frontier Energy says it has landed a “complete funding package” to finance the Waroona hybrid.

Slipping in on old rules

The Fraser Coast project is a remnant of Queensland’s old planning rules, as it was approved for development in April, 2024, well before the rules changed for how renewable energy projects are assessed. It won federal EPBC approval in November last year. 

It follows a number of solar battery hybrid projects in Queensland, including the Smoky Creek and Guthrie’s Gap projects will together feature 720MWp of solar and 600MW / 2,400MWh of battery storage.

Once built, the Fraser Coast project will be the largest Australian project on Naturgy’s register, operates in Australia through its subsidiary GPG, in which the group holds a 75% majority stake, alongside Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), which owns the remaining 25%.

Naturgy owns some of Australia’s oldest wind projects, including Crookwell 2 and 3 in New South Wales (NSW) and Berrybank 1 and 2 in Victoria.

It owns 2.5 gigawatt (GW) of wind and solar, both as operational farms and projects under development, and another 1.1 GW, 1.2 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery projects, according to project tracker Renewmap.

Just last month Naturgy commissioned the 96 MW Bundaberg solar farm, to the north of is latest Fraser Coast project, and the 260 MW Glenellen solar project in NSW, both of which have offtake deals with Telstra.

Telstra is buying all of the electricity from Bundaberg, and half of that generated at Glenellen. However, these new solar farms don’t come with batteries.

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